Found footage
narratives have become increasingly prevalent in film, not only because of the
ease with which these often unpolished films can be made, but also due to the
increasing prevalence of recording devices in our everyday existence. Now that
digital cameras cheap and easily accessible, to the point that nearly every
cell phone now comes equipped with one, these narratives are increasingly easy
to believe. On the other hand, this is what makes a period found-footage film
like Operation Avalanche more
difficult to swallow.

It has been 18
years since the last installment in the Phantasm
franchise, and nearly 40 since the original film, but Phantasm: Ravager is clearly a film for the fan-base already
familiar with the narrative. Even with working knowledge of the franchise, Phantasm: Ravager has the potential to
confuse and disorient, which was the hallmark of the original. Even the
low-budget filmmaking of this final installment is on target with the efforts
needed to make the first film, though digital effects are a sad replacement for
the creative practical tricks used in 1979.

I’m struggling
with an analysis of American Honey,
because the very things that make individual moments endlessly captivating
throughout the lengthy 162 run-time are also the largest weakness of the
overall film. Nearly everything about the American road trip made by a British
filmmaker is fittingly contradictory, including the fact that the main function
of the film is to expose an unseen side of middle-America, despite being made
by an outsider. This also gives this film a sense of contrived realism, a
depiction of America
imagined by someone with limited experience and a propensity for focusing on
the bleak and the transient.

Underworld a classic tale of forbidden
love borrowing heavily from Romeo and Juliet, adapted to the age-old folklore
about vampire and werewolf. The mythology of these films has vampires and
werewolves coming from the same human family originally, before being bitten by
a bat and wolf. The history beyond this is a mystery even to the creatures, who
only know that they have a deep blood feud against each other. They fight
within the city and beneath it, hidden to the humans. Selene (Kate Beckinsale)
is a hunter of the Lycans, killing werewolves skillfully under the belief that
they killed her family. When she notices them following a human named Michael
(Scott Speedman), Selene discovers a secret about the man that could either
bond the two feuding creatures or cause a brutal war.